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Sternberg: Fashion Is Retarded

The Band of Outsiders designer refused to hold back when quizzed about his job by Barcelona-based publication Apartamento.

Scott feels much of his time is wasted thanks to the pressure put on designers to continually produce collections. He would love a return to simpler times, but doesn’t think that will happen any time soon.

“I have 26 employees. I used to do everything myself. It was ten times easier and more enjoyable. Now I have to socialise with all these people and tell them what I want, which would be much easier to do myself,” he fumed.

“The fashion industry is retarded. It doesn’t make sense. There is too much product out there and when you’re a wholesale business it’s really impossible to resolve. You can’t, because if you want to be in a store like Barney’s, you can’t just deliver twice a year. You can’t just have two runway shows.”

He may not be happy in his role, but there are some people in the industry Scott can’t help admiring a little. He is astounded by what Tom Ford has achieved, not least because the star’s career has had so many highs and lows.

“Tom Ford is an interesting one. He’s somebody that got out, not intentionally. I think he sort of screwed up. He played his cards a little too far and they said, ‘bye bye,’ at Gucci and then he somewhat successfully made a movie… Then, he gets back in the industry. At the beginning I thought, ‘God, this guy is kind of genius.’ He launched fragrance and eyewear first and then beauty, make-up – all of it,” he replied. “Now these are the tertiary things that you do. Actually, that other people do with your brand so that you make a lot of money. Now I’m like, ‘Oh my god, he’s so f**king smart,’ because he doesn’t have to do all this c**p, waste all this fabric, make all these clothes that nobody is ever going to buy that’s essentially for a few stylists to shoot and is part of the ‘dog and pony show’. He just cut right to the chase. What a genius.”

Although that part of Tom’s career impresses Scott, he’s less enamoured with what the designer is doing now. He believes Tom’s “ridiculous” stores are “so out of touch” with consumers and is disappointed that after deciding against runway shows Tom is now presenting his collections the traditional way.

“So I don’t know, I guess we’re not on the same page, Tom Ford and I,” Scott mused.